Family Law
- Pre-Divorce Planning
- Divorce
- Legal Separation
- Annulment
- Temporary Orders
- Restraining Orders
- Custody/Child Support/ Alimony Modifications
- Community Property Issues
Divorce is one of the most difficult of life’s experiences. While no one wants to confront the issue, when required to, one must do so with a clear head and a detailed plan. The attorney which you choose to assist you is instrumental to your success.
A good family law attorney takes the time to learn about your circumstances, has, reasonable expectations for the outcome of your case, and is honest with you about what those expectations are. This avoids many feelings of disappointment, anger and frustration.
Being informed is your best tool for a I divorce or “dissolution” process that is as quick, cost effective and as painless as possible. Hagan & Associates focuses on keeping you abreast of the developments of your case and in assisting you in understanding realistic outcomes to your situation. There is really no cookie-cutter divorce. Each should be handled with individual attention to the specific details of each situation. This is not always possible with firms which funnel most of the work through paralegals or other non-lawyer individuals. Hagan & Associates focuses a counsel on your case in order to provide you with the best outcome possible.
Hagan & Associates will help you prepare a mutually acceptable stipulation with your spouse. A stipulation is an agreement between you and your spouse as to how assets will be divided, how child custody and visitation will be set if you have children, and how alimony will be paid if you meet the statutory requirements for receiving alimony. Because they contain the terms that you and your spouse have agreed upon together, stipulations are proven to be more likely to be followed than an order imposed by the court However, this is not always possible or practical.
If you and your spouse cannot agree on all of these issues, a court will have to decide them for you, and will ultimately issue an order describing all of the terms of your divorce. This can be a very time-consuming, expensive and emotional process. We’ve all heard about friends and family who have been “put through the wringer” during divorce proceedings, with only the lawyers coming out ahead.
When you entrust your family law needs with us, we will address some important, sensitive issues that can help ease the divorce process and that are seldom discussed by “mill” type family law attorneys who are more interested in their own bottom line.
For example, we can offer valuable pre-divorce planning advice to ensure that you will have the information you need to make good decisions, and to give you the ~ best chance of working out a reasonable stipulation with your spouse and of being treated as fairly as possible by the court a during the divorce process in the event you and your spouse are not able to agree on the terms of a stipulation.
We can also advise you how to best handle a divorce with a spouse who has been unstable, unreasonable, deceitful, or even abusive during your marriage, knowing that those same qualities will surface and may become worse during a divorce proceeding. Being prepared for this kind of behavior and knowing what – ” your alternatives are in dealing with it will help you feel more in control of your circumstances, which is crucial during an already emotional and difficult time.
In addition, we can advise you regarding how to incorporate language into your divorce stipulation that will prevent some common problems involving custody and support which may surface at a later time.
With her background in finance Ms. Hagan can offer advice on how t best divide assets, taking into consideration actual present and future worth. For example, if you and you spouse own a $200,000.00 home and $200,000.00 retirement plan, did you know that the retirement plan is a more valuable asset? Thus, if your spouse tell you “you take the house, I’ll take the IRA”, you are not necessarily getting an equal split. Our goal is to help ensure that your assets are divided fairly and equitably.
If you are already divorced and you feel a modification to your dissolution order is warranted because your circumstances have changed, we can assist you in that process as well.
A former business law professor, Ms. Hagan is a frequent lecturer on pre-divorce planning, the dissolution process and post-divorce modifications.